Rocks In Mbuna Set Up

[andy d]

Hello

I have rock piled on top of each other and the Yellow Lab I have in there keeps digging under the rock. I'm worried it'll become unstable and fall on him and/or hit the galss on the base. You can see in the pic below, he has dug to the glass under the rocks on the left.

What can put under that will stop him digging so deep and protect the glass. Can I use some sort of plastic sheetin?#

 

[youngfisher]

Egg Crate?

YF

 

[chesterscot]

hi take out all your rocks arrange them how you want them and then glue them together with silicone sealant or something this will help stop rock falls
regards scot

 

[andy d]

Egg Crate seems expensive!?! £10 for 600mm by 600mm

 

[chesterscot]

try the aquarium glue then

 

[Ashy_]

i've put my rocks on the actual tank base, no fish in it yet but when they do start digging the rocks won't fall.

 

[andy d]

I've found some egg crate on ebay pretty cheap.

Thanks.

PS: Just bought 8 Yellow Labs today, traded in my fully grown one for 4! Good deal i thought.

 

[dthoffsett]

Even with the eggcrate you'll need to put the rocks directly on it.

 

[wolfwolf]

Exactly. If you use egg crate or if you do not the rocks must go in before you add substrate. As you found out these fish love to dig. You can find tons of opinions online about the usefullness of egg crate. I have ~160 pounds of rocks in my 75gallon tank with no problems. I did not use egg crate. Your choice!

There is a cool video on youtube where a guy stack like 200lbs of rock in a 10 gallon tank and it does not break.



If I was you I would not glue the rocks together. IF you add more fish you might need to rearrange the tank to reduce aggression. That would be hard to do with rocks that are glued together.

 

[doktor doris]

I think glueing with silicone and egg crate are not really needed.

All I did is put all the rock in before the substrate.

Ta-taah, problem solved!